Courier staff ranks the top 10 local stories of 2012

Sunday

Dec 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 30, 2012 at 11:14 PM

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac made its second landfall at Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish on Aug. 27 as a Category 1 storm and stalled over Houma for about seven hours. It damaged more than 59,000 homes statewide, and about 1,500 of those in Terrebonne alone, according to FEMA.

The future of Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma was looking grim as 2012 came to a close because of $14.3 million in state budget cuts. That's a big chunk of the charity hospital's annual $93.2 million budget. The budget ax could have meant job losses for 245 of the hospital's 840 employees — a quarter of the staff — and widespread elimination of services. In December, however, state and LSU officials announced a deal in which Ochsner Health System and Terrebonne General Medical Center will commit $5.1 million to stave off the cuts. The Terrebonne and Lafourche parish governments kicked in more money, $2 million and $1 million respectively.

On Dec. 8, voters approved a half-cent sales tax that will raise $330 million to help finish and maintain a major levee system in Terrebonne. Local levee officials say that the money will help the district to finish its version of Morganza-to-the-Gulf in as little as four years. The project will include 10-foot levees from Larose to Dularge, 18-foot floodgates on major waterways and will help protect the parish from flooding caused by Gulf of Mexico storms. The Levee District also plans to use the tax money to build levees in Bayou Black and a floodgate in Falgout Canal.

Things looked bleak in the months following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting spill. That was followed by a months-long federal ban on new deepwater drilling that slowed oilfield-related business to a trickle. Today, however, Houma-Thibodaux's oil industry is thriving and the area economy is the second-fastest growing in the state. Economist Loren Scott has said the region is poised to add as many as 6,000 new jobs by 2014, as drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico increases, BP claim settlements are made and shipyard work booms. In Gray, Chevron opened its Preservation and Maintenance Facility in August, adding 45 jobs, and Standard Crane opened a $1.1 million manufacturing plant in December, creating 19 jobs.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's education reform package was passed in the spring, creating the largest private-school voucher program in the country. Teachers' pay, tenure and job security are now tied to a new evaluation system, not seniority. School board members are term-limited and have lost much of their power. Meanwhile, teachers are quietly trying to implement a new, tougher national curriculum.Some changes aren't popular in schools, and some may be overturned by judges. The voucher program, ruled unconstitutional on Nov. 30, is headed to the Supreme Court.

Jerry Larpenter, who was sheriff for decades, returned to the office in July following a four-year absence. He replaced Vernon Bourgeois, who opted not to run for re-election after a single four-year term that ended June 30.Larpenter says he returned to find finances in a mess and a $9 million surplus spent. He immediately laid off more than 20 deputies and called for an audit of Sheriff's Office finances. That audit turned up allegations of financial mismanagement and potential wrongdoing. The report is now headed to the legislative auditor, and Larpenter said he will ask state authorities to determine if Bourgeois' actions were unethical or illegal.

Fletcher Technical Community College's students and faculty got a new home this year with the completion of its 100,000-square-foot, $21 million campus on La. 311 in Schriever. The largest in the Louisiana Technical Community College System, the new campus roughly doubles the school's teaching space. It houses classrooms, 10 computer labs, library, lounge and student learning center.The new campus is already set to grow — school officials announced early this month that an $8 million petroleum center is set to open in 2014.

The widely acclaimed “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” filmed locally in 2010 and released over the summer, stars Quvenzhané Wallis of Houma. It was the first acting role for the then-6-year-old, who competed with thousands of other elementary-aged girls for the role of Hushpuppy, a child who struggles to come to the grips with the pending loss of both her father and her coastal home.“Beasts of the Southern Wild” won the top prize in the independent film category at January's Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Spirit Awards in several categories including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. Wallis got the nod for Best Actress and Benh Zeitlin was picked Best Director.Wallis is among those said to be in line for a Best Actress Oscar nomination. The nominees will be announced during a televised ceremony set for Jan. 10.

The reality TV show “Cajun Justice” centered around ex-Terrebonne Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois, his deputies and their cases. A&E called it a reality show, but critics say they didn't find much realism or humor in the half-hour episodes that featured topics such as ghost hunters and voodoo rituals. Bourgeois committed the office to the show without a written contract that establishes basic arrangements, such as pay or accident liability. And taxpayers had to pay a $1,000 deductible after a deputy wrecked a patrol car while staging a scene for the show.Auditors now say the arrangement may have violated state law because deputies who appeared on the show were getting paid by producers while working on the Sheriff's Office clock and taxpayers may not have received adequate compensation for use of sheriff's equipment. Current sheriff and “Cajun Justice” critic Jerry Larpenter pulled the plug on the series when he returned to office July 1. It remains unclear whether “Cajun Justice” will return to the air with deputies from another Sheriff's Office as its stars.

Terrebonne Parish is one step closer to getting state approval of a law that aims to revoke the business license of anyone convicted of selling synthetic drugs, such as bath salts.The council voted to adopt the ordinance Nov. 28, however, it will not be valid, or officially recognized, until it's approved by the state. Even though federal and state laws already make such sales illegal, manufacturers evade prosecution by making minute changes to the chemical makeup of the manmade drugs.

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